Two men from North Wales were left battered and bruised during a crowd brawl at a Tyson Fury boxing match.

The men and their girlfriends had paid more than £1,000 for tickets for the bout, at Manchester’s MEN Arena.

When a group in front of them began to stand on seats and block their view, they challenged them to move out of the way.

But moments later a punch was swung at one of the men, and he was knocked to the ground.

Multiple blows were then rained down on him and the other man in shocking scenes captured on video and posted on Youtube.

But when the group complained to the Arena, they were told the fact that they had thrown punches encouraged others to join in.

The disruption even caught the eye of boxer Fury, who was taking on Albanian Sefer Seferi.

One of the men, from Holywell, said: “It was all OK until Tyson Fury’s fight was due to start. The front few rows were just swarmed with people who shouldn’t have been there, disrupting the view for everyone who had paid to have that view.

“We were shouting the crowd control people to come down and ask them to move, but they didn’t do anything about it.”

He said moments later a punch flew at him.

“The next thing I knew there were about five or six people attacking me. I was beaten, punched and kicked, and I could see about three or four of them attacking the other man. They were seriously hurting him.

“It was about two or three minutes before the crowd control people came over one by one. But instead of taking the others out, they instead decided to throw the four of us out.”

He said the other man's girlfriend complained to the Arena after the incident, but an emailed response from the complaints department seemed to suggest somehow they were at fault.

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The response said: “Whilst we agree we can’t ascertain how the incident started, the footage (also) shows your partner throwing numerous punches which encouraged other members of the crowd to join in.

“As he was involved with the fight, even if it was only in self-defence, we are unable to comment further.”

The man said he was angry the security had seemed so lax, and that the members of the crowd who had been obstructing their view had not been dealt before the fight broke out.

Crowd trouble during the Tyson Fury boxing match (Image: PA Wire)

He added: "They’re claiming it started because someone punched someone, and they’re trying to say because he retaliated it prompted everyone else to join in so it’s my own fault. I’ll attach a video in an email to you and that virtually only missing a second of what happened.

A British Transport Police spokesman said: “A disturbance occurred inside Manchester Arena on Saturday night. British Transport Police officers were on standby but the incident was dealt with effectively and efficiently by Arena security staff.